General purpose paint brushes are used to apply various types of paints or other fluid-like materials to various types of surfaces such as walls, ceilings, baseboards, moldings, etc. Typically, such brushes are of greater width than thickness to permit paint application usually in a wide stripe but also in a narrow stripe as needed. Although edging and line detail is of concern in some applications such as trim work, another important concern is rapid coverage of the surface to be painted with fewer paint strokes and reloadings of the brush by dipping. In contrast, specialty brushes such as artist brushes, hobby brushes, lining fitches, etc., are used to apply relatively small quantities of paint with particular emphasis being placed on detail. Such specialty brushes generally are unsuitable and not intended for general purpose use in painting relatively large surfaces that may need painting such as surfaces of homes, buildings or the like.
Conventional paint brushes of general purpose type characteristically include a bundle or tuft of bristles having a working end for applying the paint or other fluid-like material to a surface and a butt or root end anchored in a generally tubular ferrule or the equivalent, for example, by an epoxy or equivalent hardenable adhesive material. The bristles usually extend longitudinally in relation to the ferrule as does an elongate handle secured to the ferrule for manipulating the brush. As used herein, the term bristles includes hog bristle, synthetic filament, animal hair or other suitable materials which may comprise the tuft. Typically, the transverse cross-section of the tuft has a wide dimension or width which is considerably greater than its narrow dimension or thickness such as by a factor of 3 or 4. Accordingly, a relatively wide stripe of paint may be applied by stroking the brush in a direction generally normal to its width and a relatively narrow stripe of paint may be applied as needed by end-wise stroking of the brush, i.e., stroking in a direction generally parallel to the width dimension of the brush.
Paint brushes of the foregoing general type have had the working ends of their tufts formed to provide a generally planar working surface extending normal to the longitudinal extent of the bristles as seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,190,181. The working ends of the tufts also have been somewhat convex in shape or consisted of oppositely tapered side surface portions which extend the width of the tuft with the longest bristles being located centrally of the thickness of the tuft as seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,504. Also, the working surface or tip of the brush may extend normal to the length of the bristles or at an angle going from one narrow end of the tuft to the other narrow end across the full width of the tuft to provide what is sometimes referred to as an angle brush usually intended for trim work. Trim brushes such as angle brushes typically are used to trim around windows without getting paint on the glass or other surface not to be painted, to paint a trim line where walls and ceilings meet or where walls meet baseboards, doors, moldings, etc., and to paint a trim line when two different colors are to meet.
Although various forms of general purpose paint brushes have been provided to facilitate various painting tasks with acceptable results, it is a continuing desire to reduce the number of brush strokes and stops for redipping by having a brush which will pick up and smoothly apply considerably more paint than presently available brushes of corresponding size, i.e., those having tufts of like width, thickness and length, particularly during the first stroke of the brush after reloading. It also would be desirable to provide such a brush with a sharp edge that facilitates trim work.